Attributing the alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks to Operation Cast Lead, Israel on Sunday explained the number of recorded incidents in 2009 represent a record year. The report was released in time for the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked on 27 January.

Acts recorded in the report include arson against shuls, verbal assaults, attacks against Jewish cemeteries, Holocaust memorials and protests against Israel seeking to legitimize the Jewish state.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein acknowledged that today, the line differentiating between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents is not always clear.

France leads the list with the highest number of anti-Semitic attacks and incidents, 631 in the first half of 2009 alone, including 113 violent attacks, compared with a total of 474 attacks in all of 2008. Britain was not far behind, with 609 attacks in the first six months of 2009, as compared with 276 in 2008.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)